Puntland sentences online reporter to a year in jail

New York, July 5,
2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a prison sentence given
to a reporter of an online news Web site on Saturday in the semi-autonomous
region of Puntland.

Judge Sheik Aden Aw Ahmed of the First-Level Court in the
port city of Bossasso sentenced Hiiraan Online reporter Faysal Mohamed
to one-year imprisonment under Puntland's criminal code for jeopardizing
security and publishing false news, according
to local reports. Mohamed has been jailed
since Thursday.

State Prosecutor Bashir Mohamed had requested a three-year
prison sentence for Mohamed, at right, over his Hiiraan
Online news article that claimed that two dead bodies found on a roadside
just outside Bossasso were those of Puntland security agents, local journalists
told CPJ. Puntland authorities said the report was false. Defense lawyers
Mohamed Abdi Gurey and Ahmed Taran said they have filed an appeal. Local
journalists told CPJ that the sentence was pronounced after only two hours and
that the prosecution brought no evidence to support the charges.

"This rushed ruling appears to be politicized and designed
to intimidate critical reporting," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes.
"We hope this conviction is overturned on appeal. We call for the immediate
release of Faysal Mohamed."

Mohamed, 24, is currently being held in the port city's
central prison. He told family members that the conditions in the prison are
unbearably hot as the cells lack adequate ventilation, local journalists said.

The privately owned Hiiraan Online is one of the more popular
online news sites in the region, local journalists told CPJ.

Authorities arrested Horseed Media radio
director Abdifatah Jama on
treason charges for airing an interview with an Islamist rebel leader last
year. President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole issued a pardon two months after the
journalist's arrest.